Sect-Machina
released on Sep 11, 2023
Sect-Machina is a fluid, atmospheric bug-themed metroidvania rendered in a vibrant 2D pixelated style, crafted with meticulous attention to detail in its combat, characters, environments, sound, and story.
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I wish this was something.
I didn't know how much I would dig the idea of bug based cyberpunk.
I didn't know how much I would dig the idea of bug based cyberpunk.
Decent proof of concept. I love the main character, Mona's, design. The environments and music are pretty good.
The enemies, gameplay, story, controls and UI need a lot of improvement. Still, I enjoyed the short free experience of this concept game.
The enemies, gameplay, story, controls and UI need a lot of improvement. Still, I enjoyed the short free experience of this concept game.
The gameplay's cool, nothing special, and no objective or history.
Sect-Machina is a good proof of concept.
The spritework for both the main character and the environments is fantastic, has loads of personality to it. I also liked the animations, nice and fluid. I think the enemies could have more impactful animations when being hit, as currently they don't react to being hit except a dust cloud which kind of takes the "oomph" out of attacking them.
Some issues I had regarding this game were some of the movement, sound issues and lack of a map.
The movement in general is pretty good, for some reason the dash was mapped to the options menu on my PS4 controller which made it harder to use for me. The sliding down walls needs a little more speed as it hinders maneuverability for the player; it doesn't feel the most intuitive to make a wall jump in tight spaces because of this.
The combat could use a little work, it does the job but it's very basic in this current state, and it has potential for more engaging mechanics.
Don't understand why people got confused by the blue bar, I figured out what it does very early on, which is health regen charged up by gaining hits on enemies, similar to the system used in Hollow Knight. Not a bad idea.
The sound options don't really seem to work either, I had to use the options on my desktop to turn the game volume down manually. Not a big deal but kind of annoying.
I stopped playing because the game bugged out (ha) and didn't feel like continuing but from what I did play, I would like to see more of it in a more finished state.
Good job to the devs, I'm excited to see where this goes.
The spritework for both the main character and the environments is fantastic, has loads of personality to it. I also liked the animations, nice and fluid. I think the enemies could have more impactful animations when being hit, as currently they don't react to being hit except a dust cloud which kind of takes the "oomph" out of attacking them.
Some issues I had regarding this game were some of the movement, sound issues and lack of a map.
The movement in general is pretty good, for some reason the dash was mapped to the options menu on my PS4 controller which made it harder to use for me. The sliding down walls needs a little more speed as it hinders maneuverability for the player; it doesn't feel the most intuitive to make a wall jump in tight spaces because of this.
The combat could use a little work, it does the job but it's very basic in this current state, and it has potential for more engaging mechanics.
Don't understand why people got confused by the blue bar, I figured out what it does very early on, which is health regen charged up by gaining hits on enemies, similar to the system used in Hollow Knight. Not a bad idea.
The sound options don't really seem to work either, I had to use the options on my desktop to turn the game volume down manually. Not a big deal but kind of annoying.
I stopped playing because the game bugged out (ha) and didn't feel like continuing but from what I did play, I would like to see more of it in a more finished state.
Good job to the devs, I'm excited to see where this goes.
Quaint little game, it feels wrong to rate it since it's a proof of concept so I won't.
Because it's just a proof of concept that was made by students for their senior thesis, there are many problems. I think my biggest gripe is that as far as i know, when you're just falling down you cannot jump at all. There are some platforming puzzles where you have to jump off a wall to be able to do it because I couldn't just jump when I fell. The bat's range is too big, I couldn't figure out what the cards do, and of course, the mysterious blue bar. Once again, I can't be too harsh because this isn't a full game and I would love to see all these issues fixed in a finished product. The game works perfectly fine and I like Metroidvanias so I found it fun going around the world collecting the cards.
The art for this game is very good. Mona's sprites and the main art is very very good, as well as the backgrounds and objects. I do think it's distracted how a lot of the sprites are in different resolutions, though. This is especially miscellaneous, but I love the stretch that Mona's sprite has when she falls down from a great height, very cute!
The music is great, I especially love the theme that plays when you get to the gas station and underground market place. I also love the cyberpunk theming, I was always a fan of that kind of sci-fi.
A quaint game that I would love to see finished one day!
Because it's just a proof of concept that was made by students for their senior thesis, there are many problems. I think my biggest gripe is that as far as i know, when you're just falling down you cannot jump at all. There are some platforming puzzles where you have to jump off a wall to be able to do it because I couldn't just jump when I fell. The bat's range is too big, I couldn't figure out what the cards do, and of course, the mysterious blue bar. Once again, I can't be too harsh because this isn't a full game and I would love to see all these issues fixed in a finished product. The game works perfectly fine and I like Metroidvanias so I found it fun going around the world collecting the cards.
The art for this game is very good. Mona's sprites and the main art is very very good, as well as the backgrounds and objects. I do think it's distracted how a lot of the sprites are in different resolutions, though. This is especially miscellaneous, but I love the stretch that Mona's sprite has when she falls down from a great height, very cute!
The music is great, I especially love the theme that plays when you get to the gas station and underground market place. I also love the cyberpunk theming, I was always a fan of that kind of sci-fi.
A quaint game that I would love to see finished one day!